We use cookies to enhance your experience on our website. By continuing to use our website, you are agreeing to our use of cookies. You can change your cookie settings at any time.ContinueFind out more

Pronunciation

smack

Main definitions of smack in US English:

smack3

noun

1A fishing boat, often one equipped with a well for keeping the caught fish alive.

‘The carriage of salmon was central to the profitability of the smacks, and increased amounts were shipped to London in ice as fresh fish.’

‘The smack is amplified by the posture of the falling fish, which typically flops sideways so that its flank hits the water.’

‘After 1750 some of the immature fish, known as grille, were carried alive by means of wells built into the hulls of the smacks.’

1.1British A single-masted sailboat used for fishing or coastal commerce.

‘Britannia, the oldest surviving smack belonging to the company, 71 carried a cargo of salt to Riga in 1823 but was employed intermittently after that.’

‘He gives us a wonderful tale of hitch-hiking aboard a motley assortment of craft - freights, dhows, yachts and fishing smacks and meeting interesting and colourful men and women on the way.’

‘The trade to London remained profitable for the fewer smacks engaged in it but other vessels owned by the company struggled to find regular employment.’

‘The Berwick evidence also indicates the high degree of competition and control exerted over road haulage by the two shipping companies operating smacks.’

‘During the early years these were sailing smacks, but the yard was at the forefront of the development of steam trawlers and came to specialise in long-range trawlers for the Hull distant water fleet.’

‘We are then brought to the consideration of the question whether, upon the facts appearing in these records, the fishing smacks were subject to capture by the armed vessels of the United States during the recent war with Spain.’

‘Pirates of the Caribbean smacks its comedy up against bone-shuddering battles and, like even the worst pirate capers, has ships of great beauty.’

‘He brought along press cuttings of the rescue of crew from the smack Argo by Clacton lifeboatmen in 1936.’